Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Do These 6 Things To Save Energy

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Saving energy is both important and beneficial for a number of reasons. Of course, shutting off the lights when you leave the room or adjusting the temperature when you’re not home will save you money and keep your energy cost low.

But there’s so much more that you can do. Energy is likely being lost through cracks in the walls, the windows, worn-out weatherstripping, poorly designed doors, uninsulated ceilings, and walls. The energy that you’re paying for is literally going out the door.

You can do six major things that will improve your home’s energy-efficiency and save you money. You’ll find that most of these methods are things that you can do yourself without shelling out thousands of dollars for a new energy-efficient HVAC system or having solar power energy installed. Although these would be beneficial to your energy savings, they are not always in the budget.

1: Replace your light bulbs

Technology is pretty amazing. You can use between 25 – 80% less electricity by changing your light bulbs to energy-efficient alternatives such as Halogen incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), and light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs). The downside to these light bulbs is they are an expensive alternative; however, you’ll actually be saving money in the long run.

2: Install a smart thermostat

Keeping your temperature just 10 to 15 degrees cooler while you’re at work will help to save you between 5-15% every year according to energy.gov.

Smart thermostats allow you complete control over your thermostat. You can program the temperature for when you’re at work or sleeping so that you’re not keeping the house too cool or too hot when it’s not necessary.  An additional benefit of a smart thermostat is that you can program it to tell you when to air filter needs to be replaced.

3: Insulate your home

A poorly insulated home plays a major role in retaining energy in your home. Insulation is designed to keep heat out during the summer and keep heat in during the winter.  You should consider insulation installation in your attic, walls, floors, basement, and crawlspace. These are the main areas where proper insulation will be beneficial.

Consider having a home energy auditor come to inspect your home to locate the areas that need additional insulation.

4: Weatherize your home

You’ll need to visually inspect both the inside and outside of your home to look for areas where air could be getting into your home. You’d be surprised how much air is lost through vents, windows, and doors because of worn-out weatherstripping, cracks, and gaps. Even small cracks or openings can cause lots of energy to be lost and make it harder to control the temperature to a comfortable level.

Replacing weather stripping, sealing, and filling the gaps around windows, doors, plumbing, and ducts will improve your energy savings. You’ll want to check the attic and light fixtures as well.

5: Unplug things that you’re not using

Leaving those small kitchen appliances plugged in is actually costing you money. There is still energy going through these appliances as well as your computer and chargers. So when you’re done using your computer, toaster oven, blender, and coffee machine, you should get into the habit of unplugging them.

For some appliances like your refrigerator, washing machine, or dryer it isn’t practical to unplug them between uses so don’t get that much plug paranoia. Instead find ways to make these machines work better, or fewer hours. For example you could sun dry your delicate clothes to run your dryer less or use tricks like a dryer ball in order to get your clothes moisture free quicker which means less run time on the machine!

6: Tune Up Your HVAC System

Regular maintenance of your HVAC system will not only help you to keep the cost of repairs low and prolong the life of your unit, but it will ensure that your heating and cooling are running efficiently. Keeping it at peak performance helps you to continue to save on your energy bill.

We all want to save money, and these are just some of the simple do-it-yourself ways to reduce the amount of energy that your home is losing. We tend to believe that the only way to improve our home’s energy efficiency is by purchasing all new energy-efficient appliances, windows, and doors. Oftentimes it’s the little things that you can do that make the most significant differences.

Saving money on your energy bills can often make the difference between which bills you can pay off this month and which ones you cannot. Learning how to budget your bills to keep costs down is essential.

Composting; You’re Doing it Wrong

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Each and every year, for the last several years, I’ve said that I plan on finding a space for a compost heap and create one.  Several years ago, I went so far as to take all of the grass trimmings and garden trimmings and dump them into a pile in the back yard.  And that’s where they sat, untended, and somewhat forgotten.  I’m still hoping that this year is going to be the year that I get off my duff and actually create the compost pile that creates actual compost.

Every year, we end up buying several bags of garden dirt for our container garden, and it would be really nice to be able to just walk into the back yard, and load up the wheelbarrow with fresh dirt from the compost pile and add that to the dirt we already have before planting our garden.  A few days ago, I spotted this TED talk, which threw my idea of compost for a little loop.  You’ll have to watch it for the full rundown, but basically, the speaker is saying that we’re doing compost wrong.

How should we be doing compost?

Mike McGrath, the speaker, suggests that the commonly held belief that you just grab all the clippings, leaves, junk mail, and kitchen scraps is wrong.  According to him, those things don’t really compost all that well because they don’t break down very easily.  Instead, he suggests that your compost pile should consist of mainly the leaves from the trees when they are shed in the fall.  All the rest, your kitchen scraps and paper bits, he suggests would be better off in a vermi-composter, or worm farm.

Compost WrongIf it’s Not Broken, Why Fix It?

The method of throwing pretty much everything into a compost bin or tumbler is a pretty old method.  It’s the way that people have been doing it, and suggesting you do it, for years.  It obviously works to some degree, or it wouldn’t have reached that point.  The first few times it failed, people would have decided it wasn’t a very good way to dispose of refuse and would have moved on to something that worked better.  In short, it doesn’t appear to be broken, so why should we go and fix it, as Mr. McGrath suggests?

I think it’s about efficiency.  If you want to take your refuse (lawn trimmings, leaves, kitchen scraps, etc) and break it down into usable compost (a.k.a. super-dirt), doing so as efficiently as possible make some sense.  Of course, most people usually choose one or the other method (everything in a pile, or vermi-composting) so I haven’t been able to find any good examples of someone doing both.  I don’t think that McGrath would have any opposition to a person adding worms directly to a compost pile.  It’s probably not as efficient as having an actual vermi-composting setup where you can harvest the castings and throw them in with the leaves.

How do you Compost?

Here’s the place in this post where you get to help out the readers of Beating Broke.  Do you compost?  How do you compost?  What do you think of separating the leaves and the kitchen scraps into two systems? Too much work?  Ideal?

5 Quick Ways to Start Prepping. You’re Already Doing at Least Two of These.

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In my recent post about the state of the American economy, I told you that you didn’t need to immediately go out and become a prepper.  And you don’t.  But, much like anything else, it helps to be prepared.  You don’t have to have a bunker under your backyard, a whole armory in the bedroom closet, or enough food to feed your whole neighborhood for years.  You can, however, start making sure that you and your family have a good start in preparing for any disaster.  Here’s 5 quick ways to start prepping.  And you’re already doing at least two of these!

Stockpiling

You don’t have to have enough stockpiled to keep your family fed for months or years.  But, if there’s anything that this winter has taught much of the U.S., it’s that it’s very possible that you could find yourself stuck in one place for several days.

What should you stockpile?  Well, food is a good start.  Canned and dry goods mostly.  Beans, rice, canned vegetables (straight from the garden if you DIY), flours, grains, vacuum packed foods, and canned meats all are good staples that can go straight into your pantry and provide backup food sources should you be unable to reach a grocery store.  (also, if grocery stores cease to exist… but let’s not go all extreme just yet.)

Stockpile other goods too.  Toilet paper, pet food, matches, fire starters, medical supplies, and even ammunition if you have that armory in your closet.  Any essential that you use regularly that won’t spoil is fair game for stockpiling in case of emergency.

5 Quick ways to start prepping

Reducing Debt

If the economy crashes, do you know what the worst thing to still have is going to be?  Well, if you haven’t guessed it, that thing is debt.  If you think your hands are tied by debt now, just wait until the economy is in the dumps, you lose your job, and inflation kills your buying power.  Debt is your enemy, no matter the state of the economy.  Start with a detailed spending log where you list what you spend every day.  Knowing what you spend, and when you usually spend it, create a simple budget.  Stick to the budget, and pay down debt by whatever means necessary.  Get rid of it.  Even if the economy booms, you’ll still be better off.

Become More Sustainable

Sustainability isn’t just for hippies.  Being eco-friendly maybe attributed to the earth loving, free love, woodstock-ing people of previous generations, but today, it’s an excellent way to be healthier, and save money on costs.  There are lots of things you can do to become more sustainable.

The easiest way to start making a difference in your bottom line is to replace high energy consuming items with low energy consuming items.  LED or Incandescent light bulbs are a relatively cheap start, and last for years.  High efficiency appliances like on-demand hot water heaters are more expensive, but can save a lot on energy over the long run.  Try air drying your clothes too.  It takes a little longer, but make it a habit, and your energy savings will grow a lot.

Growing your own vegetables, installing rain barrels, and composting are also great ways to decrease your footprint, while saving yourself money.  You can replace that produce at the grocery store with home-grown veggies, use the water in your rain-barrel instead of the electrically pumped water from a well, or the municipal water, and you can save on what you put into the dump while providing nutrient rich compost for your garden.

Learn New DIY Skills

If the economy completely fails, there’s a good chance that your access to many of the services and products that you have access to now will be severely limited, or severely cost prohibitive.  Not only will learning new DIY skills (like growing vegetables, canning food, repairing items, building items (like a deck), and the list goes on) save you money by allowing you to not pay for someone else to do it, but you’ll also gain a barter-able service that you can trade for services you can’t do.

There are plenty of ways to learn new skills too.  You can just try it and see what happens, although, in my experience, doing so increases the chances that the project you’re working on will take longer or fail entirely.  If you look, you can probably find a local class that can teach you some of the skills.  Videos on YouTube and instructions on the internet (easily found through a search) are also great ways to learn something new.

Make Your Plans

We all know that we should have a plan so that everyone knows what to do should they wake up in the middle of the night to a house that’s on fire.  We give our children a plan should they get separated from us in a crowded place.  We create budgets to plan how we will spend our money, and pay down our debt.  Having a plan for an economic collapse and the conditions that could arise should it crash doesn’t cost us anything.  A little time, and some thought.  That’s it.  Do you have family that you’d “bug out” to?  Are there people in town that you’d want to help?  Are there people in town that would help you?  How will you get wherever you’re going?  Even if that’s just home?

Having a plan, and executing it if you have to is very likely to be the difference between uninterrupted life, and something far more unpleasant.

How many of these things are you already doing?  Which are you going to try out?

Original image credit:Robert Benner Sr., on Flickr.